Percent of low-income families in in city outpaces suburbs

Dec. 29, 2013

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Changes in kids receiving free or reduced school lunches in the Sioux Falls School District

2011-2012

2012-2013

Elementary

43.7 percent

49.1 percent

Middle School

39.3 percent

44.4 percent

High School

30.1 percent

34.8 percent

-Information from the Sioux Falls School District

Changes in racial diversity

Ethnicity of Sioux Falls schools

Demographic

2012-2013

2013-2014

White population

70.5 percent

69.6 percent

Other races

29.5 percent

30.4 percent

Information from the Sioux Falls School District

Students receiving free or reduced school lunches in the Sioux Falls School District Elementary school

43.7% in 2011-2012 49.1% in 2012-2013 Middle school

39.3% in 2011-2012 44.4% in 2012-2013 High school

30.1% in 2011-2012 34.8% in 2012-2013

Students receiving free/reduced meals in area school districts

School district

2011-2012 school year

2012-2013 school year

Sioux Falls

42 percent

45.2 percent

Harrisburg

15.6 percent

16.69 percent

Tea Area

21.6 percent

24.73 percent

Brandon Valley

21.25 percent

20.75 percent

Dell Rapids

18.5 percent

19.35 percent

Tri-Valley

27 percent

25.6 percent

West Central

17.6 percent

20.7 percent

Information from the school districts and the South Dakota Department of Education

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Almost half the children in elementary school in Sioux Falls signed up for free or reduced lunch last year, an alarming jump of 5 percentage points and about double the rate of suburban districts.

The factors behind the gap range from obvious to more subtle, but the reality is the Sioux Falls School District deals with a population that on the whole has significantly deeper poverty levels than the systems which surround it.

The development patterns of urban America suggest families of lower means tend to stay in the core, while the more affluent move outward. Sioux Falls historically hasn’t followed this trend in perfect form, but it’s also apparent that some of the same influences are at work as the city grows.

“When we plan and look at these things, it’s very similar — our first tier of growth and our community changing — to other large metropolitan areas,” said Jeff Schmitt, chief planning and zoning official for the city. “I can look at Omaha, Minneapolis, Detroit, and you go, ‘We’re not Detroit, we’re not Omaha.’ But we’re not Harrisburg, either. We understand that, but we’re not turning a blind eye to it.”

While city planners deal with factors such as affordable housing and zoning and controlling growth, there is precious little that a school district can do about the income level of the students who come through the door. Yet poverty is one of the key factors in the ongoing debate nationwide about accountability for teachers and administrators and how best to measure the quality of education and, by extension, the funding.

Officials with the Sioux Falls schools watch the numbers each year — they dipped in 2011-12 before jumping back up last year — with growing concern about the broader economic health of the families they serve.

“This has been on a steady increase for a long time. I thought we had hope last year, and now it has bounced back up,” Sioux Falls School Board President Doug Morrison said.

Here is how the income and eligibility statistics break down:

■ As of May, 49.1 percent of students in grades K-5 in the Sioux Falls district received the federal government’s school lunch subsidy, up 5.4 percentage points from the previous year. The middle and high school rates were up 5.1 and 4.7 points, respectively.

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■ The overall district rate — including all students K-12 — was 45.2 percent. That is comparable to the nationwide average of about 48 percent of all public school students who received meal subsidies in 2011, according to a recent study by the Southern Education Foundation.

■ Eligibility is determined by the number of people and total income in a household. For a three-person household, the yearly income maximum is $25,389 to qualify for free meals and $36,131 for reduced-price meals.

Low unemployment, but low-wage jobs

For school board members, the increase in poverty figures shines a light on low wages in the region. South Dakota Division of Labor statistics show that half the workforce in the four-county Sioux Falls Metropolitan Area earns less than $15 an hour — about $31,000 per year.

“Personally, I don’t think the economy is struggling more now than it was a year ago,” said school board member Kent Alberty, who is also co-owner of a staffing company in Sioux Falls. “When you see 3 percent unemployment, you would think, well, companies must be thinking about bumping up their starting pay. I’m not seeing a lot of that. I think we’re seeing too many low-paying jobs and families struggling to make ends meet, even with two incomes.”

“We have jobs,” board member Todd Thoelke said. “We just don’t have jobs that help people make enough money.”

The high number of elementary school students receive free and reduced meals points shows the recovery has not reached the lower rungs of the economic ladder, said Cathy Brechtelsbauer, a Sioux Falls resident with the anti-hunger group Bread for the World.

“It’s not good enough to have low unemployment. Work needs to pay enough to raise children,” she said.

The situation is made worse for these children, she said, because many of them are in familes hit by last month’s cuts to the federal food stamp program, which means less food at home.

“We know hunger impacts children’s learning, health and behavior, so the effects can be lifelong,” she said. “Thank God for school meals. It’s critical that they get these meals, but they need food at home, too.”

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Less time for parents to spend on kids

Students who come from low-income households present challenges for schools. The federal government tries to account for that by providing extra money to high-poverty schools through the Title I program.

Sioux Falls spends its Title I grants on additional teachers to reduce class sizes, as well as social workers and behavioral support.

“Typically, when you have a school that’s in a high socioeconomic region, they have a PTA; they can do all kinds of things because they have all kinds of resources available to them,” said Ann Smith, federal programs coordinator for the Sioux Falls district. “When you have a school that’s in a neighborhood with lower socioeconomic background, they are not going to have those other funds. The federal funds come in to kind of make up for what you can’t generate through local funds.”

Low-income families also tend to be more mobile, moving often for work or housing, which can disrupt children’s learning. And parents might not have as much time to read to their children because of work obligations.

Both ends of the economic spectrum appear to be growing in the metropolitan area, said Reynold Nesiba, an associate professor of economics at Augustana College.

“It does seem like we’re seeing more million dollar-plus houses, and seeing more pressure on The Banquet, St. Francis House, rental housing assistance,” Nesiba said. “They’re growing simultaneously. It’s an interesting contradiction.”

The availability of affordable housing probably contributes to the poverty gap between the city and the suburbs, Nesiba said. Young people and families just starting out are more likely to live in the city, Nesiba said.

“There is still a shortage of affordable housing in Sioux Falls, but there are more lower-income families that end up living here rather than in Tea, Brandon or in Lincoln County, because the jobs are here,” Nesiba added. “We have a very low unemployment rate, but there are so many people that are working lower-wage jobs, and a higher number of people working two or more jobs.”

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Suburban schools better off

School officials in surrounding district say the number of students who qualify for free/reduced meals has gone up in recent years, though much less than in Sioux Falls.

Brandon Valley actually saw a small decrease last year, down to 21 percent.

Brandon Valley child nutrition director Gay Anderson said it’s difficult to pinpoint one reason for the decrease, but said an improving economy might have contributed.

In the Harrisburg School District, which includes the growing southern side of Sioux Falls, just 16 percent of students qualify for meal subsidies.

Harrisburg hasn’t been able to take any open enrollment requests for at least the past seven years despite steadily building new schools, because of the growth in enrollment from new residents of the district they see each year.

The Tea Area School District — with a rate of 25 percent free and reduced lunches — can take only a handful of open enrollment requests a year as well because of space issues caused by growing enrollment.

Tea Area Superintendent Jennifer Lowery said more multifamily residential options are being constructed in the community, including a new apartment building completed last year, which might account for some of the increase they’ve seen.

“Our district has just been growing so fast,” she said.

School officials from around the region said the number of high school students who qualify for the meal subsidy typically is lower than elementary or middle school students, partly because some high school students are able to leave school for open campus and don’t eat school lunch.

In the Tea Area School District, for example, 16 percent of high school students qualified for free and reduced meals this year, whereas 23 percent of elementary school students qualified.

Easier to sign up

A change last year in how families can get signed up to receive meal subsidies accounts for at least some of the increases districts saw last year.

The Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010, which set healthier guidelines for federally subsidized meals, also made it easier for families already on government assistance to get on the school lunch list.

Beginning last year, all states are required to receive downloads of families who already use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. Each month, a new download is received, and anyone participating in SNAP will qualify for free meals.

“The Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010 has been the biggest success at getting families on free meals,” Joni Davis, child nutrition supervisor for the Sioux Falls School District, said by email. “The automatic download from Social Services has eliminated the application process. Previously, SNAP familes received a letter from Social Services that they had to submit to schools.”